Special Service and Features
Finance Minister's speech at the inauguration of Renovated court premises of NCLAT bench in Chennai
It was a very good decision taken by the NCLAT bench coming here in Chennai. The decision was taken even during the Covid lockdown, and very studiously and actively the decision was executed, and the Bench was set up in time, and two of the benches will be working sooner.The bench had around 50 per cent success of the cases that have been handled. Out of the total 578, over 200 of them have been cleared. It is encouraging to have progress in both the NCLT and NCLAT.
There has always been a bit of resentment outside about the benches not being filled sooner with both the judicial and technical members. If only these members are appointed in time and the cycle is maintained in a well oiled fashion, the delays and the purpose of holding the NCLAT would itself be served better. The resentment was to say that if the filling up of the post happens in time, it would be very helpful. The government has taken the point very seriously and of late a lot of appointments have been made with full speed.
Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who piloted this Bill and rapidly kept asking even after 2019 for quick amendments which will make it much more robust so that the law can be in the true spirit linking up with the expectations of the companies outside. That has been repeatedly proven that the suggestion comes from the judiciary and we have taken it up from the government’s side to frequently and without any hesitations go to the Parliament have more and more amendments which will only fine tune the Act.
In spite of some of the opposition members asking us how many times would you come for the amendment? Won’t you think of having the law in the first place well drafted or well thought through, we have explained it. I have no hesitation, and at least, at least three times I have gone with the amendments with no hesitation to say that the law requires amendment to be more robust and real time meeting the challenges of the industry and to address the requirement of the industry. So, that’s been well taken by the opposition and there has always been very good spirit and cooperation in having the amendments to the NCLT or to IBC and there has never been a question or hesitation or obstruction in having those amendments come through.
Whether it is amendment, whether filling up the positions, whether it is to make sure that there are enough Resolution Professionals, I am in touch with the IBBI to make sure that the professionals are skilled enough, they are periodically trained up to take up the cases. The latest amendment wherein the number of cases being handled by the RPs being made limited would only bring in greater scrutiny in to the process and also make it more transparent.
The few occasions, unfortunately, where some ‘interest’ operating in decision making at the level of the RPs. When it came to our notice, with the consultation of the judiciary, we have taken a corrective course of action so that ‘that’ does not spread too much because we need to have a transparent process. They cannot be gaming of the system, and when gaming of the system when notice has been immediately put down. That is where I think, there should be a lot of interchange of views and exchange of suggestions both from the technical and judicial members so that we make sure that success of the IBC is in all our hands, so that India becomes a lot more successful in the commercial activities and vice investors don’t have hesitation. The whole argument that most of the treaties that India signs and the discussion on the investment agreements - the BITS - most often have this issue coming up that the judicial process takes a lot of time. Commercial courts are very few. The NCLT and NCLAT do suffer from want of timely filling in of positions. The last and most critical component being the process of RP and CIRP to coming very vitiated have all been points of discussions whenever we have the BIT negotiations with countries with whom we want to have agreements signed. But, when the processes removed of all these little glitches of anyone trying to play up the system, we have greater confidence coming in the minds of the investors. Negotiations now concede that India has a better robust system and is giving confidence for investors who are coming to the country.